Posted!

Join the Conversation

Comments

This conversation is moderated according to USA TODAY's
community rules.
Please read the rules before joining the discussion.

OPINION

Our View: GEDA should turn its miles over to people of Guam

Staff Reports, news@guampdn.com
Published 4:14 p.m. ChT May 6, 2018

CLOSE

Guam Economic Development Authority Administator Jay Rojas on Monday says the qualifying certificate program has contributed some $8 billion to the Guam economy, inclusive of the multiplier effect. At the GEDA board meeting, Rojas says the Guam Memorial Hospital will be receiving funds from the QC community contribution from GRMC in the next few weeks or months.
Haidee Eugenio/PDN

A Delta Airlines flight comes in on its final approach to the A.B. Won Pat International Airport, as seen from the Palmridge Inn in Maite on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2015.
Rick Cruz/Pacific Daily News/rmcruz@guampdn.com(Photo: Rick Cruz/PDN)

During a hearing Friday, Guam Economic Development Authority administrator Jay Rojas said his agency does not contribute frequent flier miles to the government of Guam mileage program because the agency does not purchase tickets with credit cards.

The program was designed to help students and medical patents offset travel expenses by providing a bank of miles accumulated through government travel.

After all, the people of Guam are buying the tickets. The people of Guam should benefit from their investments.

Because of the nature of GEDA's work, the agency's employees are subject to frequent travel. In fact, Rojas noted in a social media post last year that he was about to hit 2 million miles with Delta and its partners.

Are the people of Guam benefiting?

During Friday's hearing, Speaker Benjamin Cruz questioned whether the people of Guam are getting the full benefit of the tickets they are buying.

“With these huge delegations that you take, are all those miles turned over to the government, or do the travelers get to keep those miles?”

Rojas told him that based on his agency’s review of the government mileage law, they don't need to turn over the miles because the agency does not buy tickets with a government credit card.

For our students, or those who are sick

Whether an agency uses a credit card or some other financial instrument to pay for a trip should not matter. Our community spends a lot of money paying for officials to travel, and the accumulated miles are a side benefit of all that travel.

Those miles should be used to send our students to educational opportunities they cannot get here, or to help those who are sick travel for medical treatment they cannot receive here.

While doing otherwise might be technically permissible, it certainly doesn't promote the spirit of the program or the well-being of the community.